Mechanics' Institute Chess Club Newsletter #469

Too many young players fail to realize that there's far more
to chess than just moves.

Jeremy Silman

1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club News

2) 2nd Annual Congress and Open Championship of the United States
Chess Federation, St. Louis, 1941

3) Jerry Hanken versus
Pal Benko - 1963 Chicago US Open

4) Upcoming Events

1) Mechanics' Institute Chess Club
News

Sic transit gloria mundi. Just after everything
seemed to be coming together after defeating Arizona last week we collapsed in
the semi-finals against Miami. The final score is not indicative of the
one-sidedness of the match, one of the worst defeats the Mechanics' has ever
been administered.

The opening
here was a bit of a surprise as GM Becerra usually favors the Slav and King's
Indian but Jesse's treatment of these openings ( dxe5 and cxd5) may have
persuaded him to try something more active. At any rate his use of the Grunfeld
quickly paid dividends. Jesse could have and maybe should have played 15.Bd3
planning Nc5 with a solid position where he wouldn't stand worse. Instead he
lashed out with 15.f4. Maybe he could have salvaged his position with the
computer like 18.Bf3 Qb6 19.Rd3 Rfe8 20.Rb3. He definitely was on the road
to defeat after 18.Rd4.The half point at the end was just a gift to clinch the
match for Miami.

This game was the only bright spot for the Mechanics'. Vinay equalized out of
the opening and when Blas chose 21.Nh2 instead of 21.Nf2 he was better and
steadily increased his advantage and could have finished off in fine style with
33...Nf4! followed by ...g5. Instead things got ragged ( 35...Ng5? instead of
35...Nc5) and with 37.Bg4 White would have been equal - instead 37.Bd4?? lost on
the spot.

The famous game Steinitz-Zuckertort, London 1872, saw 8...Bc5
but IM Moreno Roman's seems quite playable as well. Maybe White had to try
Rybka's suggestion of 10.g3 fxg3 11.Bg2 gxh2 12.Kf1. Instead David, who was
working everything out over the board, played 10.Qe1 as seen in
Chigorin-Mortimer, Paris 1900. Black's 10...Bxf3+ was a substantial improvement
over 10...Re8+ as played by Mortimer and White never had a
chance.

Yian was doing fine here ( and had a 50 minute advantage on the
clock) but he should have played either 17...Nh5 18.Nxe5 Bxe5 19.Bd3 Be6 or
19...e4 with equal chances. Instead allowing White to capture on f5 and play e4
quickly led to an untenable position.

Every team in the US Chess League is bit of a mystery to the rest. How
they chose their lineups each weak is based on insider information (who is in
town, who is healthy, who is good form) that no scouting report is likely to
predict, but this season much of the league might have guessed the Mechanics'
were playing musical chairs. Seven of the ten players on the roster made trips
to Europe during the season, some for prolonged periods. This was not fully
anticipated when assembling the team roster and at times we were down to
four eligible players ( i.e.. the court of last resort - Donaldson goes
into the lineup). The plan was to field two of our four GMs, put Sam Shankland
and his 2550 USCF rating on three, and 2300 strength NM Yian Liou on four.

The potential of this plan was shown the first four weeks of the season when
we got off to a hot start with 3.5 from 4 including 3-1 wins over Dallas and
Miami. Then we lost Sam who went to Europe in search of his last GM norm.
Objectively speaking this was a serious loss as Sam's lifetime winning
percentage in the league is over 80 percent. This meant the Mechanics' had gone
from one of the most dangerous teams in the league to merely a good
one. The change was immediately apparent as the team stumbled drawing only
one of its next three matches to hover barely over 50 percent. Then came
a good comeback with two consecutive wins and a draw to get the second
seed in the West. A victory over Arizona left us only two matches short of
the goal and with Sam back for the final match ( but Josh and Vinay out of
town for the December 5 final) , but it was not to be as we lost to a
Miami team that fully deserved their win

All things considered tying for third in the 14-team league ( + 6, -3, =3)
was a respectable finish even if we still dream of what might have been. None of
the successes we enjoyed would have been possible without team MVP Yian
Liou. Before the start of the season David Pruess and I were uncertain how to
put together the roster. Sam Shankland and Daniel Naroditsky were both
substantially high rated than the year before. Many of our
GMs were likely to be unavailable at different stages of the season so
we knew there were few spots we could afford for board four. Greg
Young, had played well in years past, and did again this season ( 2-0 !),
but demanding high school academics and basketball met he could only play a few
matches. Also his rating was too high to allow the two GM plus Sam lineup. Enter
Yian Liou.

NM Michael Aigner, who has worked with so many of the promising young players
to come up through the Bay Area ranks ( Shankland, Naroditsky, Zierk, Young,
Schwarz, etc...) wrote to David and I telling us we should check out this
12-year-old kid from Walnut Creek who just might do the trick.
This proved to be a slight understatement. Yian scored 6.5 from 10 for
a performance rating that was over 2400 until the final match. He not
only performed excellently and was extremely durable ( no one else on
the team played more than 7 matches) , he did it with an assessed rating of
2019! That's good value.

Two other players came up big during the season. Former US Champion Patrick
Wolff scored 2.5 from 4 for a performance rating well over 2600. He and
Vinay Bhat stepped into the lineup the second half of the season replacing
European bound GMs Josh Friedel and Jesse Kraai who had been struggling. Josh
has been a steady performer for the MI in the USCL over the years but 2009 is a
season I am sure he would rather forget with 1.5 from 5, his only win straight
from theory. Jesse's final score of 3 from 6 was good for a 2500 performance but
a little deceptive as it includes a gift half point from Becerra and scrapping
out the bottom of the barrel for a draw and win respectively
against Krush and Felecan in the regular season. Both Josh and Jesse are
perfectionists who like to think which are not necessarily good
qualities in the USCL where practical players reign supreme.

Daniel Naroditsky is also a perfectionist and for much of his USCL career has
had a hard time. This season looked to promise more of the same as it started
out with a pair of painful losses (particularly the one against Danny Rensch)
but he really rose to the occasion the last part of the year. Filling in
for Sam Shankland he scored an undefeated 3 from 4 down the stretch to play
a key role in helping the team turn things around.

The future is uncertain for the Mechanics'. We lose IM (soon to be GM) Sam
Shankland who will be attending Brandeis University next season but will have
our young Tigers Daniel and Yian back plus a bunch of GMs and IMs, but how to
squeeze them in under the rating cap? The quest will be on to find the
missing link. Are there any Bay Area players rated 2000 on the September 2009
rating list that will be 2300 strength come next September? Let me know!

I would like to thank our loyal tournament director Payam Tanaka for
performing his duties in exemplary fashion. Payam not only made sure all was
proper and by the book but his statistical analysis of other teams was very
useful in guessing lineups in advance. He also made sure no one suffered from
low blood sugar by providing a steady supply of pastries and drinks. Thank
Payam!

One of the reasons the MI has enjoyed the success it has is due to
the cultivation of its junior talent. This season was no exception and I
would like to thank Michael Aigner, Sam Shankland, David Pruess and Josh
Friedel for helping Yian Liou prepare for his games throughout the season.
Seeing Patrick Wolff patiently explaining the intricacies of an ending to Yian
in a post mortem was watching the knowledge of a great player of the past being
transferred to a future star right before my eyes. The hard work and
willingness to share was greatly appreciated.

NM Oleg Shaknazarov defeated San Francisco high school student Evan Sandberg
last night to grab the lead in the Fall Tuesday Night Marathon with a 5-0 score.
Tied for second a half point back in the 66-player field are Experts Romy
Fuentes and Igor Traub.

Sam Shankland has 6 from 10 ( 2513 performance) in the November
First Saturday Tournament in Budapest with two rounds to go.

Daniel Naroditsky begins play in the Netherlands shortly and
Vinay Bhat leaves for two tournaments in Spain tomorrow.

MI member Tanuj Vasudeva has 6.0/7 and is tied for
second at World Youth U8 being held in Turkey.

NM John Blackstone of Las Vegas sends in the following
item from the American Chess Magazine (1898), Volume 1
p.629

SAN FRANCISCO CHESS AND WHIST CLUB

The
San Francisco Whist Club, in response to the wishes of a number of its members
who are chess as well as whist players, is favorably considering the idea of
placing its rooms at the disposal of those ladies and gentlemen who may desire
to use its facilities for chess purposes only. It is proposed to make a
reduction in the dues to meet this particular case and such persons would only
be called upon to pay $1,instead of $1.50, per month. The idea is a capital one
and it is thought that the opportunity thus afforded will be seized by the many
who consider that San Francisco should possess a really representative chess
club in keeping with its size. The Mechanics' Institute for many years past has
been the stumbling block in the way of the formation of a club, for the reason
that its membership charges were practically nil. As the whist club puts no time
limitations upon its members, but permits play to be carrier on at all hours,
the advantages are not altogether one-sided.—San Francisco
Chronicle

2) 2nd Annual Congress and
Open Championship of the United States Chess Federation, St. Louis,
1941

The
42nd annual congress and Open Tournament of the United States Chess
Federation were held July 17-27, 1941 at the Hotel DeSoto in Saint Louis, under
the auspices of the St. Louis Chess League and the Missouri Chess
Association.

An able committee headed by Erich
W. Marchand handled all arrangements in excellent fashion. There were 16
entrants, divided into three groups for preliminary play. Of these, 10 qualified
for the championship division of the finals.

Reuben Fine won the tournament by a comfortable margin, maintaining his
remarkable record of never finishing out of first place in an Open Tournament.
Herman Steiner was second and Weaver W. Adams third.

By
the luck of the draw, Fine encountered Adams and Steiner in the first two
rounds. Victory over these two formidable opponents left him clear sailing the
rest of the way. Draws in later rounds with Boris Blumin and Fred Anderson gave
him a final score of 8-1.

Steiner lost to Fine and Adams, drew with Blumin and won the rest of his
games to finish 6 ½ - 2 1/2 , which earned him second place by half a point.
Adams lost to Fine and beat Steiner, but dropped his games to Blumin and
Anderson to finish third with 6-3. Blumin, former champion of Canada, was
fourth.

The Canadian’s score of 5 ½ - 3 ½ does not tell the whole story of his
accomplishments, for he completed his games against the first three prize
winners without a loss, drawing with Fine and Steiner and defeating Adams. He
lost only to Anderson and Dr. Bruno Schmidt.

Marchand and Anderson shared fifth and sixth places with scores of 5-4.

The six players who did not qualify for the championship division played
a double round Class A tourney. C. M. Burton and Ward M. P. Mitchell tied for
first with scores of 6 ½ - 3 1/2. David Ehrlich was third with
6-4.

L. Walter Stephens, Federation vice-president, directed the tournament
and donated special prizes for the best played and most brilliant games. The
former went to Dr. Schmidt for his splendid ending in the game, Schmidt vs.
Blumin, and the latter to Anderson for his victory over
Adams.

Source:The USCF Yearbook for 1941-43, page
7.

3)
Jerry Hanken versus Pal Benko - Chicago 1963 US Open

The sensation of the third round was Jerome Hanken's play against Pal
Benko. Hanken, a young California expert with a U.S.C.F. rating of 2187,
very close to master class, since 2200 and over is necessary to win that high
rating), had the Whites against the ex-Hungarian broker of securities who is now
an investment broker of securities in New York, and played the English with
great care and originality. Though he lost a pawn, he retained a bind on the
position and, with queens off the board, maneuvered so deftly that Benko got
into time pressure, shed the extra pawn, and towards the end was actually a pawn
down, but was unable to squeeze out with a draw. In post-game analysis, Hanken
clapped his hand to his forehead and groaned, 41.P-K4 would have won for me!"

Chess -
September 11, 1963, page 378 by P.H. Little

Page 379 of the same
issue of Chess features a picture of the top boards from round 3
with Jerry clearly visible.

The following game,
played when Jerry was 28, was possibly his first tournament game against a
Grandmaster.